M01 MEHR7265 11 SE C01 - Pearsonvig.pearsoned.com/samplechapter/0205787266.pdfindividual and/or group to achieve the highest level of functioning they are capable of achieving within

C H A P T E R

1Human Services

A New Direction

Q U E S T I O N S T O C O N S I D E R

■ What is the meaning of human services?

■ What recent circumstances have resulted in the growth of the field of human services?

■ What is meant by social policy?

■ What are the differences between the concepts of integration and generic human services?

■ What are the ten attributes of generic human services?

■ What is a human service worker?

1

Two New Beginnings

Mary Lynn has always been a good listener. Lately, that talent has been coming in handy. Herbest friend, Judy, called yesterday, sobbing so much that Mary Lynn could hardly understand her.Finally, she pieced together that Judy’s husband, Dick, had hit her several times in the ribs andthen choked her till she almost blacked out, all because of a late breakfast. Mary Lynn encour-aged Judy to let it all out, and Judy did! Judy revealed that her broken arm from “a fall” twoyears ago was really due to Dick, and this kind of behavior had become frequent since Dick waslaid off.

While expressing her concern and understanding, Mary Lynn grew very worried about herfriend’s welfare. She began to encourage Judy to get help. Judy was adamant that Dick would “killher” if she brought the topic of counseling up to him. After much coaxing, Mary Lynn convincedJudy to go with her to a women’s shelter for advice and help.

Now that Judy was going to get some professional support, Mary Lynn began thinkingabout how rewarding it was to help her friend. The idea occurred to her that working at the

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2 C H A P T E R O N E

women’s shelter must be really worthwhile. Mary Lynn decided to talk to some of the people thereabout how she could find a career in that field. The community college might even have a trainingprogram for it. Mary Lynn vaguely recalled reading in the paper about human service technology.Maybe she would look into that. After all, it’s never too late to start something new, even if you’resupposed to be old enough to know better!

Human services is a phrase that is often used to group activities that focus on helping peo-ple live better lives. In the broadest sense, the human services include formal systems suchas government welfare programs, education, mental retardation services, mental health organizations, child care programs, physical health care establishments, and the correc-tional services of the legal justice system. The phrase also has more specific meanings.Some authors have described its most important feature as a new consciousness amongworkers and clients in the formal helping systems. Others have focused on human servicesas a concept that embodies an integrated delivery of services to consumers. Still othershave defined it as a sociopolitical movement that has aspects of a subtle revolution. Individual human service workers may focus on one or more of these factors as the mostimportant aspect of human services, depending on their training, experience, and personalgoals. The theme that all share is the improvement of quality of living for the neediestmembers of society.

What Is a Human Service Worker? Multiple Views

A human service worker is anyone who is trained or educated in helping activities. Thisdefinition fits in with the use of the term human services as a broad phrase that subsumesall the established helping professions and helping activities. But this definition wouldinclude all members of the traditional helping professions and virtually everyone else whoprovides helping service to the needy. For our purposes, it is much too broad.

A human service worker is a person who does not have traditional professional aca-demic credentials but who, through experience, training, or education, provides helpingservices. If human service workers were defined this way, traditional helping professionalswould be ruled out. And indeed, although some members of the established traditional pro-fessions work from a framework that embodies some of the attributes of human services,many do not. The large majority of traditional professionals maintain a self-identityrelated to their specific academic training. They do not identify themselves as human serv-ice workers but as social workers or psychologists, for example.

The problem with this definition is that, like the previous one, it includes too broada range of those who provide helping services. It would include volunteers, police, para-medics, helpful and concerned bartenders, and so on. While these people may providehelpful efforts as adjuncts to formal human services systems, there is little utility in adefinition that includes them as human service workers.

A human service worker is a trained entry-level professional. The human serviceworker provides uniquely designed interventions for individuals experiencing emotional,cognitive, and/or social problems. These services are for the purpose of assisting theindividual and/or group to achieve the highest level of functioning they are capable ofachieving within the context of the society in which they live (Cogan, 1993).1


Human Services 3

The field of human services and entry-level human service professionals are charac-terized by a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary viewpoint, a concern for the whole person,and a recognition that the field of human services can lay claim to a philosophical unique-ness that continues to evolve dynamically (Kronick, 1986; Macht, 1986; Mehr, 1986).

Human services as a field of endeavor, academic discipline, and social science hasthe potential to become a factor in changing policy toward domestic human conditions thatare more supportive of programs designed to enhance the quality of life for all people(Cimmino, 2004). Cimmino describes what he calls the “three pillars” that define humanservices: advocacy, or valuing individuals and families; research, or raising social andpolitical consciousness; and credentialing, or training students, developing resources, andproviding professional support. Human service workers have the potential to contributesomething new and different to the helping services—something beyond what the tradi-tional professions have to offer. The human service professional is a new type of worker: a social health generalist change agent, whose actual job title may be only one of the manythat fit into the human services field (see Box 1.1).

BO X 1.1Typical Employment Titles for Human Service Workers

Mental health technician Case coordinator

Drug abuse counselor Life skills instructor

Client advocate Neighborhood worker

Social service aide Group activities aide

Probation officer Case monitor

Parole officer Child advocate

Gerontology aide Group home worker

Home health aide Crisis intervention counselor

Mental health aide Community organizer

Intake interviewer Community outreach worker

Social work assistant Community action worker

Psychological aide Halfway house counselor

Assistant case manager Rehabilitation case worker

Residential manager Protective services aide

Caseworker Family support worker

Youth worker Social service liaison

Residential counselor Behavioral management aide

Case management aide Eligibility counselor

Alcohol counselor Adult day care worker

Activity aide Social skills trainer



Current Conceptions of Human Services Systems

While some agreement exists about the events that have led to the development of thehuman services approach, complete agreement does not yet exist in regard to just what thefield is. Some professionals feel that it is a totally new approach to providing innovativeservices to persons in need. Others describe it as a primarily organizational approach tothe delivery of established services that have been developed by the traditional helpingprofessionals. More and more think it is a field with its own concrete identity, comparableto social work or psychology.

The two major conceptions of human services place primary emphasis on differingaspects of service delivery problems. The first conception deals mainly with the integra-tion of traditional services into a coordinated network at the local, state, or federal level.This has been termed the human services integration concept. The second conceptionincludes the concept of system integration, but it also focuses on the issue of human serv-ices as a distinct new field, identifiable by the attitudes of its practitioners and the tech-nologies it uses. This second concept, called the generic human services concept, formsthe underlying fabric of this book.

Human Services Integration Concept

The focus of this conceptualization of human services is its emphasis on integrating thevarious human services systems under one organizational or administrative system. It hassometimes been called the umbrella agency concept (see Figure 1.1). It is the simpler of

Public welfare

Corrections

Crisis hotlines

Vocational rehabilitation

Department of mental health

Developmental disabilities

Children and family services

Public health services

Central Administration

FIGURE 1.1 Umbrella Agency Concept


Human Services 5

the two approaches and has fewer implications in terms of the types of services offered orthe underlying conceptual frameworks. In an early article, March (1968) describes pro-grams under this framework as having the following features: (1) comprehensiveness ofservices, (2) decentralized facilities located in areas with a high population density, and(3) integrated administration that supports continuity of care from one service element tothe next with a minimum of wasted time or duplication of activity. Four models of thistype of organization, ranging from simple to complex, have been widely adopted: (1) theinformation and referral center, (2) the diagnostic center, (3) the one-step multiservicecenter, and (4) a linked comprehensive network.

A number of state governments have given lip service to using this conception ofintegrated human services as their organizational system, but have generally put theemphasis on simple integrated budgeting rather than systemic change. The conceptionappears quite popular, as it has much appeal to those who think it can save money orexpand services. There does, however, seem to be a major problem in the integrationmodel’s lack of careful attention to the very services it would integrate. That this approachmay be “old wine in new bottles” is a real concern.

Unfortunately, in some states, a Department of Human Services has been formed asan umbrella agency with no significant change in how the various subunits do businesswith each other. At the end of the 1990s, for example, the state government in Illinoisestablished a Department of Human Services that integrated the upper levels of adminis-trative staff but had little impact on actual service practice.

The basic concepts of service integration are unquestionably valid and desirable butmay not go far enough. They are an important part of the alternative generic concept ofhuman services.

The Generic Human Services Concept

Even though the term human services is often used simply as a substitute for other terms(such as social services), it is becoming more and more apparent that human services is inreality a new field. The boundaries between the subspecialties of human services (mentalhealth, corrections, child care, education, welfare, mental retardation, and so on) arebecoming less well defined. The common attributes of generic human services becomemore obvious as those boundaries dissipate.

One well-known educator in human services, Dr. Harold McPheeters (now retired),was involved in the field beginning at least in 1965. In 1989, when asked if there wassomething that could be called a human services delivery model, he answered as follows(McClam and Woodside, 1989):

I don’t know. I feel there needs to be a differentiation of the roles of human services andsocial work. I feel that human services has much more of an orientation to helping theclient in any possible way—being with that client to get the job done to improve that per-son’s functioning. Human service workers do whatever needs to be done—it might be psy-chological, or it might be assisting with medical needs or social needs. Human serviceworkers are not constrained by any single philosophical orientation or technology. They’remuch more oriented to helping the client solve a problem with whatever it takes, using arange of biological, social, psychological approaches. They ought to have the ability to deal



confidently in all of those areas to help the clients. To me, this generic orientation to get-ting the job done is philosophically the difference between human service workers andother professions.

Cimmino (1993, 2004) has moved the concept of generic human services a step fur-ther by describing a “social health generalist.” Compared with the mental health generalistof the 1960s and 1970s, this idea reflects the need for human service workers in a varietyof roles within a rapidly changing social and economic system. The social health general-ist role includes a broader knowledge base of a variety of community resources, case man-agement strategies, social policy, and political influences. The social health generalistconcept implies a time when separate services subsystems no longer exist and individualswill be helped with all their problems through one comprehensive system based on solu-tions to problems, rather than many different and unrelated services systems. Such a com-prehensive services system would embody characteristics of the generic human servicesconcept, including the following:

1. Services are ideally delivered through an integrated service system.2. Human services places increasing importance on environment (cultural expecta-

tions, here-and-now relationships) as a factor in problems of life adjustment butdoes not ignore psychological issues.

3. Human services focuses on problem solution and helping services rather than ontreatment.

Human service work is a rewarding experience for the worker as well as the client.


Human Services 7

4. Human services has a major task of understanding the impacts of social institutions,social systems, and particularly cultural diversity on social problems.

5. A major task for human services is identifying and using the experiences by whichpeople grow, mature, or change.

6. Human service workers are identified by their competencies rather than by level offormal education or type of educational degree.

7. The focus for training human service workers is on learning skills, in addition toknowledge.

8. The human services system demands that its technologies and approaches work; itis evidence based.

9. Human services is pragmatic and eclectic. It uses all the things that work in dealingwith client-consumer problems regardless of theoretical model.

10. Human services is efficient, seeking the most “bang for the buck.”

It should be obvious from this list that human services is not a new science or fieldof knowledge; it is, however, a new approach to using the understandings and discoveriesof the current sciences and professions. Human services, while not antagonistic to the tra-ditional professions, is a new mixture of attitudes, approaches, and behaviors. This willbecome clearer as we examine each attribute individually.

1. Human services are ideally delivered through an integrated service system. Thisconcept of the integration of service has been examined more fully earlier in this chapter.The client-consumer must be able to obtain all the needed services through the same sys-tem if the problem of fragmentation of services is to be avoided. To provide only psycho-logical support in the face of concrete problems such as lack of decent housing, noemployment, or no social contacts does not deal with the total pattern of problems and islikely to be ineffective.

Put yourself in the client’s place. How would you react if you were an unemployedsingle parent with two preschool children, living in an unheated three-room apartment, withno money for rent, barely enough food, and no funds to pay for child care so that you couldhunt for a job? Would you be angry? Would you feel hopeless and depressed? A counselorat a mental health center could try to help you with your angry, hopeless, or depressed feel-ings, but the other problems would still be there. In an integrated service center, you wouldget help for all or most of these problems at the same time: job training; advocacy with thegas company so that the heat could be turned on; help with temporary public aid money,food stamps, and arrangements for child care; and counseling for the emotional problems.

2. Human services places increasing importance on environment as a factor in prob-lems of life adjustment but does not ignore psychological issues. Until recently, most ofthe human services subspecialties focused on the inner person—the psychological dynam-ics that caused the problem or illness—to the virtual exclusion of environmental factors.The true human services approach seeks an appropriate balance between psychologicaldynamics and here-and-now factors. Such an approach recognizes that it is inappropriateto deal with personality characteristics or maladaptation until real progress is made on theclient-consumer’s physical needs, such as food, shelter, and safety. In effect, it is futile todeal with the psychological dynamics of a symptom pattern without first dealing with such



precipitating factors as social isolation, loss of employment, or lack of monetary resources. However, once basic needs have been dealt with, the client’s behavior, thinking,and feeling can become the focus of his or her concern.

3. Human services focuses on problem solution rather than on treatment. The conceptof treatment implies illness, and a great deal of evidence exists that once begun, many ofthe traditional treatment systems are virtually interminable. Human services focuses onthe development of solutions to real-life problems and the development of the client’sproblem-solving capacities. This basic process must occur before treatment can be effec-tive. It is conceivable that once the human services problems are dealt with, treatment willbe unnecessary.

4. Human services has a major task of understanding the impacts of social institutions,social systems, and particularly cultural diversity on social problems (see Box 1.2). Theproblems and processes of the inner person are dealt with as well as possible, consideringthe current knowledge and resources of the traditional professionals: the social worker,psychologist, psychiatrist, and so forth. But these professions have generally ignored acritical area that human services focuses on: the social–institutional environment. This isnot to say that the field of human services should ignore the issues of the inner person.These issues are important, and human services must incorporate them into its system;however, the primary focus must be on the problem areas that have not been dealt with.Human services must look for new answers to human problems that can supplement andcomplement the already widely accepted strategies. These answers are most likely to be inthe arena of effects of social institutions, new institutions such as peer groups and con-sumer groups, cross-cultural issues, community political attitudes, quality of life, socialchange, and many others.

5. A major task for human services is identifying and using the experiences by which peo-ple grow, mature, or change. Even though the traditional helping services are considered to

BO X 1.2“There She Lies, the Great Melting Pot”

In 1908, as great waves of immigrants arrived in the United States, playwright Israel Zangwill’sThe Melting Pot opened in New York. From this play and that era comes the phrase that has beenused to characterize the United States—a melting pot of races, cultures, and religions, in whichraw resources would be melted down into a new, stronger alloy. Although the metaphor is strik-ing, today the multicultural perspective would advocate a different idea—perhaps a stew, in whichmany different ingredients create a flavor that is unique, a stew that is less desirable if any ingre-dient is left out.

Human services in the United States must pay particular attention to a host of issues of cul-ture because of the nation’s remarkable diversity. Few other countries have its range of culturaldiversity, but many others have at least several diverse cultural minorities to consider.


Human Services 9

be growth experiences, it is imperative to identify additional experiences of this type, prefer-ably ones that are natural or built into our existing systems. The growth of self-sustainingcommunities of people who were once hospitalized for a mental illness and who now provideone another with social and emotional support and cooperate in business ventures for theirlivelihood is a good example of this process, as are the work-release programs in corrections.Other examples are Alcoholics Anonymous, Synanon, and peer therapy programs. Thisprocess is extremely important in terms of resource use and staffing because the communitiesare generally self-supporting and require little funding from the tax base.

6. Human service workers are identified by their competencies (their ability to dothings) rather than by level of formal education or type of educational degree. In currentsystems, the educational degree is often the prime criterion for employment, size of salary,importance, power, and credibility. The tremendous growth in the use of entry-level pro-fessionals and studies done on their effectiveness indicate that staff members at the associ-ate, bachelor’s, and master’s level can competently perform a large percentage of the taskscurrently done by traditional professionals. Human service workers, then, are identified bywhat they can do, not necessarily by how advanced their education is.

7. The focus for training human service workers is on learning skills, in addition toknowledge. Although a human service worker needs to know many things, knowingdoes not necessarily imply being able to do. The focus of education in the traditionalfields has been on knowledge rather than on experience and behavior, with the signifi-cant exception of medical training. The current trend, even in the traditional professions,is toward skills-focused degree programs, such as the doctorate in psychology, whichfocuses on practical experience rather than on university learning. Because human serv-ices focuses on doing, it makes sense that human services training or degree programsmust focus on competence-oriented education and training in addition to academicallyoriented education.

8. The human services system demands that its technologies and approaches work; itis evidence based. The helping services have often been based on unprovable assumptionsand have rarely been evaluated in terms of effectiveness. Does what we are doing reallywork? A major attribute of human services must be valid evaluation and a commitment toact on the results of that evaluation. The delivery of a particular service must be based onits effectiveness in problem solution rather than on the deliverer’s belief that it is good forthe client or on the fact that the deliverer enjoys doing it. A recent positive trend in themental health and chemical dependence fields has been a national focus on identifying themost effective treatments for specific problems. This approach is called evidence-basedpractice.

9. Human services is pragmatic and eclectic. It uses all the things that work in dealingwith client-consumer problems, regardless of theoretical model. All too frequently, validsolutions are not used by a system because they do not fit into a set of rigid assumptionsabout treatment. A case in point is the rejection of behavioral (learning theory) technolo-gies by systems that are predominantly psychodynamic in orientation. A good example ofthe eclectic approach is the inclusion of alternative healing methods, such as American Indian healing rituals, and other cultural approaches to service delivery when working



with people of other cultural groups. Human service systems employ service delivery ap-proaches on the basis of their proven effectiveness rather than on the basis of theoreticalpreconceptions.

10. Human services is efficient. By and large, human services systems are tax supportedbecause they focus on dealing with people who do not have the ability to pay. A majorproblem has always been that there never seems to be enough tax money to fund complexservices for all those who have been identified as needing services. A compounding factorin most of the traditional systems has been the issue of overtreatment—that is, deliveringlong-term services to a small percentage of potential clients, which in effect ties up thesystem and prevents services from being delivered equally to all. A major attribute ofhuman services systems, then, is efficiency—providing the necessary level of effective in-tervention for the client but avoiding creating in the client an overdependency on services.This approach ensures that the greatest number of client-consumers will receive servicesand that human services will get the most “bang for the buck.” The concept of efficiencyimplies delivering effective services to the greatest number of clients possible, through themost efficient use of resources possible.

Social Policy and Human Services

Human services concepts did not arise in a vacuum. Historical developments led to chang-ing social policies and at the same time were instrumental in leading to social policychanges. All human service workers owe their occupation to current social policies, asthose policies are codified in the law and governmental rules and regulations.

Social policy refers to principles, guidelines, and concepts that guide a society’sactions toward its members, usually formalized as governmental laws, regulations, andrules. In the realm of human services, the most important social policies are usuallyreferred to as social welfare policies. Time after time in this text, issues will be raised andsocial responses will be described that are reflections of current or changing social welfarepolicies.

Some experts believe that, to formulate the most effective social policy, a strength-based approach has the most likelihood of success (Chapin, 1995). This type of approachrequires a thoughtful identification of the basic needs, with consideration to cultural fac-tors and other issues that may be barriers to meeting those needs. This identification ofneeds includes a process for negotiation of definitions by the needy group or its advocates.Then, there is a process of identifying ways that people who are needy currently overcomesuch barriers (a best-practice model); these are the strengths to be capitalized on.Resources for need satisfaction are then identified, and finally policy is formulated. Afterformulation of the policy and its goals, programs are designed, implemented, and evalu-ated, always with client and advocate input. Unfortunately, few if any social policies areformulated, promulgated, and implemented in this rigorous manner.

The process by which social policies typically change is much less obvious, lessplanned, and less focused on client and advocate input. Policies are modified, rejected, orcreated to meet the perceived needs of society at a particular moment, and the perception


Human Services 11

of what constitutes a need, as we shall see, does change from time to time. The formula-tion of social policy first requires that social needs be identified. Once needs have beenidentified, the needs are evaluated for priority. The prioritization of social needs is a com-plex and difficult task but one that is clearly necessary when resources are not available toadequately deal with all social needs. That has always been and will always be the case.

There is no absolute scale on which social needs can be ranked. The setting of prior-ities often depends on citizen advocacy, advocacy by professionals and researchers, andlobbying efforts brought to bear on local, state, and federal elected officials. At any timethe priority of competing needs will be advocated by different groups, some of whom willsucceed and some of whom will fail.

As some needs are successfully identified as deserving action, policies will be for-mulated through negotiation by those needs’ advocates, the government, and at timesthrough voter referenda. The resulting social policy must then be turned into action.

The action phase of social policy implementation requires the development of spe-cific plans and programs. At this stage, lawmakers, the courts, and governmental bodiesbegin to interpret what the policy requires. Programs are designed to meet the social needbased on interpretation of the more general social policy. Of critical significance at thisand later stages of social policy implementation is the availability of local, state, and fed-eral funding. Lack of adequate funding has frequently prevented the effective implementa-tion of sound social policy.

Once social policies have been codified through law, rule, and governmental regula-tion and programs have been developed, funded, and implemented, the tale still continues.Policies and programs are not static; they continually change and undergo modification,not only because we may find new ways of doing things but also because society is everchanging, ever redefining its priorities.

Social policy can also be viewed from the perspective of official policy versus de facto policy. Official policy is the policy that is espoused by the majority, the experts,and the rule makers; de facto policy is the policy in practice. The two are often the samebut may be different. For example, in the field of criminal corrections, the espoused socialpolicy is rehabilitation of offenders. In actuality, the de facto policy is punishment, whichis clear from the limited investment in rehabilitation services and the overwhelming investment of resources in incarceration.

A second example comes from the mental health field. For several decades, theespoused social policy in the mental health sector has been to value community careover the use of hospitalization, and a decrease in state hospital beds has been used toshow movement in this direction. However, the de facto policy in mental health has con-tinued to support hospital care for people who are mentally ill, as evidenced by the dra-matic increase in community care hospital psychiatric beds and huge increases inadmissions to those settings. Thus, there are several variants of social policy in the areaof mental health, which over time may evolve into a clearer policy or perhaps remainblurred.

Another example of a de facto social policy is represented by the decade of the1980s and the first few years of the 1990s, when the conservative Republican administra-tions of Presidents Reagan and Bush set the tone for the nation. In those years, the threatof economic inflation and then recession and the demands of the cold war resulted in



reductions in human services funding in order to reduce federal deficits and at the sametime increase defense spending. Through those years, human services fared poorly in com-petition with policies of military superiority, an image of governmental fiscal responsibil-ity, and promises to the electorate of reduced taxation. That continues to be the case in thetwenty-first century, when the ongoing war on terrorism and the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan require huge spending.

Can human service workers influence social policy? McPheeters (2004) points outthat human service workers tend to do little in the area of trying to influence social pol-icy, but those who want social policies that are responsive to their view of what needs tobe done will have to be more active in their attempts to influence others, on a variety offronts. He suggests that each human service worker should become educated on localpolitical issues as well as national issues and should register, vote, talk to legislators,attend hearings, ask to testify on issues of interest, build coalitions with others, andremain committed. Human service workers have an obligation to pursue greater influ-ence in social policy development, and many of the skills that human service workershave or gain are especially well suited to the advocacy role that social policy develop-ment requires.

In the 1990s, the social policy issue in the forefront on a national level first appearedto be universal health care. In 1993, the sequential Republican administrations ofPresidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were replaced by the Democraticadministration of President Bill Clinton. Although President Clinton recognized theneed to reduce the federal deficit and made it a major initiative, he also appeared to seethe need for improved public services. His administration was committed to nationalhealth care reform, to include increased access for mental health services for all citizensregardless of their ability to pay. Of particular importance for the field of human serviceswas the possibility that this health care reform might include funding both for the provi-sion of mental health services in hospitals and for services in the community for personswith serious and persistent mental illness.

The Democratic administration faced a difficult balancing act: to reduce the federaldeficit and stimulate the economy while also pushing through health care reform and oth-erwise improving human services. Success would bring sweeping changes in many humanservices systems, particularly in mental health. Unfortunately, health care reform at anational level was soundly defeated in Congress, only to return as a critical issue at theend of the first decade of the twenty-first century.

In the 1990s, deficit reduction and welfare reform took priority, and sweepingchanges were proposed and signed into law. Those changes, pushed by a conservative Republican Congress and signed into law in 1997 by a centrist Democratic president fac-ing reelection, focused on dramatically reducing welfare rolls and saving money. They essentially did away with what was criticized as an “almost unlimited entitlement.” Thenew system, called TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), presumed thatable-bodied persons could find jobs that would enable them to become self-sufficient. Fail-ure of a parent—usually, a single mother—to become gainfully employed meant that sheand her child or children lost publicly funded benefits. There is a five-year lifetime limiton welfare benefits, and after two years of benefits, able-bodied adults are required to workor risk losing the benefits. Food stamps are kept as a benefit, but able-bodied adults without


Human Services 13

dependents are limited to three months of food stamps during a three-year period. Mostbenefits are denied to legal immigrants who are not citizens, and benefits are definitelydenied to illegal immigrants. These changes affected 12.8 million families who receivedaid and 26 million Americans who received food stamps. States were supposed to providejob training and other services to assist recipients in obtaining work. Opponents of the changes to welfare law feared that it would result in great hardship for people who arepoor. They did not believe states would consistently be able to link recipients who werewilling to work with employers willing to hire.

Although the welfare rolls decreased dramatically after 1997 and many welfarerecipients found employment, those jobs were typically at minimum-wage level and manyresulted from a growing economy (Haskins, 2006). Beginning in 2008, a severe economicrecession made jobs for TANF recipients extremely scarce.

Summary

1. Human services can be defined as a field that helps individuals cope with problemsof a social welfare, psychological, behavioral, and/or legal nature. Human servicesis characterized by an integrated, pragmatic approach focusing on problem solutionwithin the client’s life space, utilizing change strategies affecting both the internalperson and his or her external environment.

2. A human service worker is a trained entry-level professional. The human serviceworker provides uniquely designed interventions for individuals experiencingemotional, cognitive, and/or social problems. These services are for the purposeof assisting the individual and/or group to achieve the highest level of function-ing they are capable of achieving within the context of the society in which they live.

3. Human services has come to be characterized by new attitudes on the part of staffmembers and an increased emphasis on providing services to the neediest. It focuseson people who are poor and disenfranchised rather than on groups that have alwaysbeen able to pay for services.

4. One approach to human services focuses on integrating various service delivery sys-tems under a single administrative organization. This approach has been criticizedfor not placing enough emphasis on new service methods and technologies.

5. The generic human services approach adds to the concept of integration a focus onthe types of methods and technologies used to help people in need.

6. Generic human services share a number of characteristics: integrated services;emphasis on environmental factors; problem solution; understanding of social insti-tutions, systems, and problems; identification of growth experiences; competence ofworkers; development of skills in workers; evaluation of services; pragmatism andeclecticism; and efficiency.

7. Social policy consists of principles, guidelines, and concepts that guide socialaction. It is developed through a complicated process of advocacy and legislativeaction and is constantly changing in interpretation.



E N D N O T E

1. Definition contributed by Dennis B. Cogan,professor of mental health and human services,Georgia State University, Atlanta, May 1993.

R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D I N G S

Cimmino, P. F. (2004). Basic concepts and definitions ofhuman services. In H. S. Harris, D. C. Maloney,and F. M. Rother (Eds.), Human services:Contemporary issues and trends (3rd ed.). Boston:Allyn & Bacon.

Harris, H. S., Maloney, D. C., and Rother, F. M. (Eds.).(2004). Human services: Contemporary issuesand trends (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

I N T E R N E T S I T E S

National Organization for Human Services www.nationalhumanservices.org

Welfare Information Networkwww.welfareinfo.org

C O N N E C T I N G W I T H M Y H E L P I N G L A B

Log in to MyHelpingLab. Using the MySearchLab tool,explore the following key concepts/terms using at leasttwo search engines:

■ Human service worker■ Social welfare issues■ Human services integration■ Evidence based human services

1. Cite the first two articles/Web sites that appeared foreach key concept/term. Cite both search engines.Use proper APA referencing.

2. Scan through one article under each search enginefor one of the aforementioned key concepts/terms.

What did you learn? How does it relate to the defi-nitions described in this chapter? How does itcompare with your own perspectives? Write a one-page essay about the key concept/term you chose.

Recommended:

Check MyHelpingLibrary for case studies that may assistyou in developing your essay.You can also find helpful tips on MySearchLab about howto write an essay and use citations and references.


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M01 MEHR7265 11 SE C01 - Pearsonvig.pearsoned.com/samplechapter/0205787266.pdfindividual and/or group to achieve the highest level of functioning they are capable of achieving within